This proposed NEMLA panel uses the categories=20=91loss=92 and =91foundlings=92 as overlapping lenses=20through which to investigate 19th century North=20American childhoods that lie outside the main of=20American Childhood Studies. We encourage=20abstracts that employ interdisciplinary=20methodologies to study the wealth of non-Anglo=20American child narratives which circulate in=20various 19th century print media and oral=20traditions, such as legends and folklore, poetry,=20short stories, spiritual manuals, short stories,=20novels, adult newspapers and juvenile=20literature. We seek proposals that engage the=20historical, social and political forces that=20refract current models of 19th century American=20childhood into =93foundlings=94. How do such=20societal forces as government child removal,=20kidnapping, slave remanding and/or manumission,=20missionary conversion, racial segregation,=20illness, poverty, indentured or coerced child=20labor alter and remap the developmental=20trajectories that we attribute to the 19th=20century North American child literary figure?

Possible topics might include (but are not limited to):

* Orphans, adoptees, foster children,=20refugees, hospital or church asylum seekers,=20public or private charity beneficiaries, street=20urchins, chimney sweeps, or juvenile delinquents * The significance of foundling children in=20the formation of working-class labor identities * The perverse or contradictory influence of=20public or private charity on foundlings * National, local or subjective desires for=20foundlings; or, conversely, the desire of=20foundling for communal or national affiliations. * The subject=96formation or intersubjective relations of foundlings * The psychological role of loss, e.g., loss=20of home, land, roots, or belonging, as such loss=20inflects, frames or over-determines the development of foundlings * The spiritual, educational, disciplinary,=20hygienic, or psychological discourses which=20individuals or institutions deploy about=20foundlings, and the objectives and repercussions of such discourses. * The loss and recovery of 19th century=20narratives about foundling children in publishing=20history; we encourage especially paper proposals=20that consider 19th Century literary journals=20other than Lydia Marie Child=92s Juvenile MiscellanyPlease submit a 500 word abstract and short c.v.=20to < <mailto:srr9_at_cornell.edu>srr9_at_cornell.edu>=20and <<mailto:hme5_at_cornell.edu>hme5_at_cornell.edu>=20no later than Wednesday, September 14.

All participants must be NEMLA members and=20registered for the NEMLA convention by Nov. 15.

Shirleen Robinson and Hilary EmmettDepartment of EnglishCornell University